Packers Morning Buzz: No doubt about Green Bay's best-ever draft

Welcome to your Morning Buzz, rounding up news and views regarding the Green Bay Packers from around the web and here at PackersNews.com.

We'll start with Rob Reischel of Forbes ranking the Packers' top draft classes of all time. Reischel naturally goes with the 1958 Packers haul that ranks with the Steelers' class of 1974 as arguably the best in NFL history.

Reischel writes:

In the second round, the Packers drafted fullback Jim Taylor, who was their all-time leading rusher until 2009 and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1976. In the third round, the Packers selected linebacker Ray Nitschke, who played 15 years in Green Bay and went into the Hall of Fame in 1978.

Green Bay’s first round pick that season was linebacker Dan Currie, a seven-year starter. And the Packers used a fourth rounder on right guard Jerry Kramer, an 11-year starter who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018.

You can read Reischel's entire rankings here (the Packers' class of 2005 that produced Aaron Rodgers and Nick Collins may not rank where you'd expect):

On the flip side, the Packers closed the books on a dismal 2015 draft when they allowed linebacker Jake Ryan -- the last remaining member of that class -- to sign with Jacksonville. Ryan Wood puts the entire draft disaster under the microscope:

It was the year Ted Thompson, perhaps the league’s best drafting general manager, finally saw his hit streak end. https://t.co/GfZGu1miFP

The esteemed Peter King makes mention in his weekly NBC Sports column of the Packers likely being required to play an international game soon:

King writes:

I think for all of you, particularly in Packer Nation, who wonder why in the world Green Bay has never played in England or Mexico, you may not have to wonder that much more. I think Green Bay’s time is coming, likely as soon as 2020, to finally go on the road to play a game in London. The reasons why Green Bay has never had to make the trip are predictable—the Packers don’t want to give up one of eight sold-out home games, and no team hosting the Packers wants to give up that gate because the Packers travel so well and fill the stadium and local hotels with fans. But I think the NFL is conscious of not giving a prized franchise special treatment.

In his ranking of NFL general managers, Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com excludes the Gutekunst and six others who were hired after the 2017 draft and haven't been on the job long enough for fair evaluation. Rosenthal does write this about Gutekunst:

Gutekunst's aggressive additions to the Packers' defense in free agency were popular on the homefront, and built upon his defense-heavy first draft. Now, defensive coordinator Mike Pettine needs to make Gutekunst's moves look smart. Inheriting an offense with Aaron Rodgers and David Bakhtiari should ultimately make Gutekunst's job a lot easier.